Monday 01/28/13

The New York Times had a piece on Tuesday highlighting the farm politics involving climate change.

Pam Johnson, president of the National Corn Growers Association, was interviewed and expressed her deep concern about drought that "cut the harvest at her northern Iowa farm by about 40 bushels an acre." Johnson had to use rely on crop insurance to stay afloat.

As the story noted, Johnson's concern is not about how to deal with climate change. It's protecting the federal crop insurance program from budget cuts.

“We are Americans before we are farmers,” Johnson told the Times. “We know we have budget problems.” Still, she added: “For our farmers, crop insurance is the main concern. It helps keep us in business.”

Indemnities as of now for crop insurance are at slightly more than $13 billion. That number will continue to rise. My understanding is that with at least some crop insurance companies the payouts to farmers with $200,000 or more are being delayed by audits.

The Times noted the impact of global warming is expensive. The full cost of the drought could be $35 billion and Hurricane Sandy may be $65 billion. Yet, the costs in the future could be much higher.

The question is, how do you pay for those costs? A carbon tax? As the Times stated, "As things stand, drought is unlikely to change their minds. Farmers are still covered by crop insurance, and they have powerful allies in Congress who will fight to keep the subsidies in place. They may see little reason to support legislation that would make energy or fertilizer more expensive."

In quoting Johnson, “Farmers would be deeply affected by an energy tax."

Farm groups really helped lead us down a pathway of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in the 2005 and 2007 energy bills that built out the current biofuels industry and started the current boom we are seeing in production agriculture.

Let's not forget the failed 2009 cap-and-trade plan in Congress exempted agriculture from any regulation on greenhouse gases and then would have given them a trading market for conservation practices to sequester carbon in the ground. Farm Bureau erupted with "Don't Cap Our Future." NCGA's president at the time said he can't no-till on his farm so he wouldn't benefit, even though he lived not far from one of the biggest no-till research farms in the country.

So cap-and-trade failed. And then a lot of advocates for biofuels lost their congressional seats shortly after.

Now, farm groups can't understand why Congress is siding more often with the oil companies and attacking biofuels. It's pretty simple. Biofuels are overseen by EPA and were put in place partially to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Well, farmers said we don't have to worry about reducing greenhouse gases. So why do we need biofuels?

We could take a look at what agriculture can do to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, but the House and Senate Agriculture Committees would rather pass farm bills scored at over $1 trillion over 10 years in cost without bothering to take a look at what climate change will do to increase the cost of USDA programs over the next decade.

Tue Mar 3, 2015 02:09 PM CSTIowa businessman Bruce Rastetter put together the Iowa Agriculture Summit for Saturday with a lineup of confirmed speakers oriented heavily around Republican presidential candidates. The ag summit is expected to draw 900 Iowans as well as national media to cover the candidates and event.

Thu Feb 26, 2015 09:05 AM CSTFarm states are looking at a variety of options to generate revenue. Here are a couple of recent examples as Iowa and Kansas seek to address infrastructure or budget holes.

Wed Feb 25, 2015 08:58 AM CSTFormer Rep. Tom Latham, a Republican from Iowa, told a room of journalists, bloggers and public-relations staff late Tuesday afternoon that it would be a bad idea to reopen any aspect of the farm bill.

Mon Feb 23, 2015 02:32 PM CSTOmaha agricultural attorney David Domina gave his own perspective on the impacts of consolidation on farming in Nebraska during a speech Friday at the state's flagship university in Lincoln.

Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:05 PM CSTIn a statement emailed out just after 7 p.m. Pacific (9 p.m. Central) on Friday, the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union announced they had reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract covering workers at all 29 West Coast ports.

Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:09 AM CSTSen. Jeff Flake released a parody of a BBQ sign on Wednesday as a way to keep the spotlight on a bill he helped introduce earlier this month. Flake and a few of his colleagues have embraced the proposal by President Barack Obama's FY 2016 budget to get rid of the premium subsidy for the Harvest Price Option on crop insurance.

Thu Feb 12, 2015 01:07 PM CSTRep. Mike Pompeo, a Republican from Kansas, lashed out Thursday at three Democrats in Congress for introducing a bill that would require labeling foods that have ingredients from biotech crops. The congressmen said lawmakers should "stop listening to celebrity chefs and well-heeled 'activists,' and start really caring about those less fortunate."

Tue Feb 10, 2015 07:12 AM CSTIt shouldn't surprise anyone that the crop-insurance industry came out of its annual convention over the weekend committed to fending off potential federal budget cuts. Crop insurers see themselves as under fire because of proposals in both Congress and the Obama administration that would cut spending on crop insurance anywhere from $220 million to $1.6 billion a year.

Mon Feb 9, 2015 05:07 PM CSTSupporters of country-of-origin labeling declared victory Monday that they had beaten back a federal lawsuit filed by the nation's meatpackers and other critics of the legislation. A bigger question was just how relevant the litigation is in the grand scheme of things because the World Trade Organization is going to tell everyone what is going to happen with COOL.

Tue Feb 3, 2015 08:19 PM CSTA day after the chairmen of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees scoffed at President Barack Obama's proposal to cut crop insurance, a pair of senators introduced a bill that would translate into significant cuts to crop insurance for the nation's largest farmers.

Tue Feb 3, 2015 03:19 PM CSTAhead of a scheduled joint hearing Wednesday of the Senate Environment and Public Works and House Transportation and Infrastructure committees on the waters of the U.S. rule to be finalized this spring, one congressman is pressing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to fully respond to a request for information about the agency's efforts to map potential waters of the U.S. that could become jurisdictional with the new rule.

Mon Feb 2, 2015 09:29 AM CSTAgriculture faces various studies and mixed signals when it comes to climate change. Farmers need to adapt yet many argue that agriculture also does more harm than good trying to mitigating greenhouse gases through biofuels.

Wed Jan 28, 2015 09:32 AM CSTVal Dolcini, head of the Farm Service Agency, is making the rounds to talk to producers about farm-program enrollment. I spoke to him briefly this week about the enrollment numbers and how FSA is getting the message out about the programs.

Mon Jan 26, 2015 09:56 AM CSTI was somewhat caught off-guard Friday when a few members of Practical Farmers of Iowa asked that I stick around their conference for a one-woman play performance. I was already facing an evening drive home and dinner from a drive-thru.

Sun Jan 18, 2015 09:47 AM CSTLate Saturday evening, the White House issued a fact sheet on a new tax proposal President Barack Obama will roll out Tuesday night at his State of the Union speech. The plan effectively increases taxes on wealthier people while offering some tax breaks for middle-class wage-earners.